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From Seventh Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. 


THE 

SURFACE DRAINAGE 

# 

OF THE 

METROPOLITAN DISTRICT 


By C. W. FOLSOM, C. E. 

*• 

"Of Cambridge. 



BOSTON: 

WEIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 

79 Milk Street (corner of Federal). 


1876. 




















THE 

SURFACE-DRAINAGE OF THE METROPOLITAN 

DISTRICT. 


By C. W. FOLSOM, C. E., 

Of Cambridge. 



WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF 




















SURFACE-DRAINAGE OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT. 


The districts in and around Boston which suffer from imperfect 
surface-drainage are of two classes : salt-water or tide marshes , and 
fresh-water marshes , swamps, or lowlands. 

The salt-ivater marshes are of uniform character, composed of 
soft alluvial mud, with a surface-level of from ten to eleven feet 
above mean low water, rendering them always liable to be flowed at 
spring tides.* 

Such salt-water or tidal marshes can, of course, only be drained 
by diking out the tide, and providing for the escape of any streams 
running down from the highlands by diverting them over the em¬ 
bankment, or allowing them to escape through self-acting tide-gates, 
or valves, at low water; in which way the ordinary water of rains 
over the marshes themselves would escape. In marshes of large 
area, pumping might be found necessary, as in Holland. 

The fresh-water marshes , or lowlands, occur on almost all the 
brooks and rivers in this district, at all levels from their sources to 
their mouths, where they join the salt marshes (that is, in the 
vicinity of Boston, from 200 feet above the sea, downwards). In 
most instances they are of natural formation, but many of them 
are increased or aggravated by the flowing of mill-dams, as on the 
Charles and Neponset rivers.| Most of them are at such a level 
above tide as to render their drainage perfectly simple and generally 
easj^, the fall of the streams below them being such as not to 
involve long or heavy cuttings for that purpose ; but, owing to the 
fact that the land is held in small parcels, it would generally be 
impossible for the owner of a marsh to drain it except by entering 
on his neighbors' lands below him ; for which reason, some general 
system, conducted, under legislative authority, by some central 

# These range, in Boston harbor, from ten to twelve and a half feet above 
mean low water, and are even higher in exceptional storms. The height 
of the tide in the great storm of April, 1851, which carried away Minot’s 
Ledge light-house, was about fifteen and one-half feet. 

t Bee paper by Dr. George Derby, on “Mill-dams,” and the evils caused by 
them, in the Report of the State Board of Health for 1872, pages 60-70. 



510 


STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. 


[Jan. 


power, would seem to be the only way in which drainage can be 
accomplished. 

The evils of all these marshes, in a sanitary point of view, are 
chiefly as follows :— 

1st. Houses cannot be built on them in their undrained condition 
without wet cellars , a well-recognized source of disease. 

2d. The air over them , and for a considerable distance around, is 
damp, from excessive evaporation ; a further cause of diseases such 
as consumption, rheumatism, neuralgia, etc.* 

3d. A certain amount of malaria exists, from the decomposition 
of wet vegetable matter in warm weather, perhaps not generally 
sufficient in this latitude to create intermittent fever in those who 
are free from its seeds, but bringing it out in those who have con¬ 
tracted its taint in other States or countries, and probably affecting 
the general health of many in a similar way, but in a less marked 
form. 

Much land that is not ordinarily called “ marsh ” is subject to the 
above evils. The immediate valleys of the streams may be of firm 
soil, and not marshy at ordinary seasons ; but being scarcely or not 
at all above the level of the water in storms or spring freshets, it 
follows that all houses built there must be subject to wet cellars at 
those times. And so great is the difficulty of making an ordinary 
cellar perfectly water-tight, even with cement, with a constant head 
or pressure of water forcing its way* in from the outside, that it is 
at best imperfect sanitation to build a house with the bottom of the 
cellar below the level of the water-table in the adjoining land. 

The only cure for the evil of a marshy soil for building purposes 
that has been tried around Boston hitherto, has been by a simple 
raising of the ground by filling. The area of filled land in the met¬ 
ropolitan district has been roughly' estimated at about 3,300 acres, 
or five square miles. Many districts f have been raised by the city, 
after they had become thickly inhabited, at an expense of several 
millions of dollars. 

In case of fresh-water marshes, the proper cure lies in the lower¬ 
ing of the water-table in the soil by thorough drainage previous to 
building, and even previous to any filling that may be thought desir¬ 
able. This drainage may ordinarily be effected by open ditches, 
protected in very loose soils by stoning the sides at bottom. If, 
owing to the thick crowding of houses, or the improvement of the 

* See the article by Dr. H. I. Bowditch on Consumption, in the Report 
of the State Board of Health for 1873. 

t For instance, in the vicinity of Church, Dover, Suffolk and Northampton 
streets in Boston, and of Washington, Sparks and Cowperthwaite streets 
in Cambridge. 



1876.] 


SURFACE-DRAINAGE. 


511 


land for garden or farm purposes, it becomes necessary to cover the 
water-courses, it may be effected by using dry stone culverts for the 
larger streams, often best supplemented b}^ a filling of loose stone 
above the culvert, or by the common, unglazed, agricultural drain¬ 
ing-tile for the valleys at the heads of streams. Tight brick or vit¬ 
rified pipe-drains, if laid in cement, though excellent for carrying off 
the water when it has once got into the drain, cannot be well used 
for receiving and collecting the water from the soil. Common sew¬ 
ers, if properly built for their use as such, are not suitable for this 
purpose, unless for carrying off the water from loose drains above 
them; because, for use as sewers, they should be built as tight as 
possible; whereas, for the drainage of bogs and swamps, the drains 
should be open or loose in character for the whole length of the 
swamp, so that the surface-water may be quickly absorbed and car¬ 
ried away. The sewers, too, have generally to follow the lines of the 
streets, which are very rarely laid out lengthwise of the valleys of 
the streams, that being the place to which drains for surface-water 
should converge to be efficient. 

It is impossible, in the limits of this Report, or without more de¬ 
tailed surveys, to indicate, except in the most general manner, the 
position of the places needing drainage. The whole districts of the 
“Back” and “South” bays, so called, in Boston, are familiar to 
every one. It is to be hoped that no portion of these lands in future 
filling will be left at the objectionable levels which have formerly 
prevailed; but it is worth considering whether more effort should 
not be made towards keeping the tide-water out of the subsoil after 
they are filled than has ever yet been done. It is to be remarked, 
that a large part of the lands which have been filled or raised in the 
suburbs, particularly in Cambridge and Somerville, are barely filled 
to high-water mark of spring tides. Before really good drainage or 
sewerage can be insured, it will be necessary to raise these lands 
very considerably higher. 

The whole valley of “ Stony Brook ” in West Roxbury and Dor¬ 
chester districts, with an area of water-shed, including small por¬ 
tions of Hyde Park and Brookline, of 8,000 acres, or 12£ square 
miles, can be drained by the city of Boston, under existing acts of 
the legislature.* On the upper portions of this stream are some of 
the worst swamps in the city of Boston. We would particularly 
mention as needing drainage on the waters of Stony Brook, the dis¬ 
trict in Dorchester bounded by Erie Avenue, Washington Street, 
Norfolk Street, and Blue Hill Avenue; and in West Roxbury, the 
district bounded by Morton, Back, Walk Hill, and Canterbury streets ; 

* See chapter 196 of Acts of 1874; chapter 220 of 1870; chapter 223 of 
1868, etc., etc. 


512 


STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan.76. 


also, that bounded by Washington, Williams, and Forest Hills 
streets; also, that bounded by Centre and South streets and the 
Bussey Farm. Very many other places in Dorchester and West 
Roxbury require drainage, in the thickly settled as well as in the 
wilder portions. In Cambridge, Somerville, and Arlington there 
are considerable areas requiring drainage of the soil along the 
course of Alewife Brook. 


Abstract of Areas of Upland and Lowland for Boston and Neigh¬ 
boring Towns , taken from the Report of the “ Commissioners on 
Annexation ,” being City Document No. 105 of 1873. 



Area of Upland,— 
Acres. 

Area of Marsh or 

Low Lands, — 

Acres. 

Total Area, not in¬ 

cluding streets,— 
Acres. 

Boston in 1873, 

7,575 

2,008 

9,583 

West Roxbury,. 

6,500 

127 

6,627 

Brighton,. 

1,970 

400 

2,370 

Charlestown, . . . . . , . 

340 

198 

538 

Total Boston in 1875,. 

16,385 

2,733 

19,118 

Cambridge,. 

2,415* 

1,045* 

2,983 

Somerville,. 

2,312 

50 

2,362 

Brookline,. 

3,500 

500 

4,000 

Watertown,. 

2,312 

55 

2,367 

Medford,. , . . . 

4,400 

520 

4,920 

Winthrop,. 

697 

185 

882 

Everett,. 

1,450 

650 

2,100 

Revere,. 

2,100 

1,300 

3,400 

Chelsea,. 

400 

620 

1,020 

Total,. 

35,971-f 

7,658f 

43,152 


* The sum of these is 3,460 acres, which includes 477 acres of streets, 
t The sum of these is 43,629, which includes 477 acres of streets. 

In this paper there has been no attempt to treat the subject of 
surface-drainage in an exhaustive manner; the remarks here offered, 
necessarily confined within a narrow limit, are simply meant to be 
suggestive of the general importance of the matter, and of the need 
of attention to it by the cities and towns of the Commonwealth. 
The facts stated in this report are illustrated by the accompanying 
map. 








































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